Sport

Sports defend corporate governance standards

Updated
March 19, 2013 13:45:00

The fight to restore Australia as an international powerhouse of sport has moved from the stadium to the board room. The Australian Sports Commission has demanded that seven of the most heavily funded sports in the country reform their governance, or face funding cuts.

ELEANOR HALL: Australian sports organisations are defending their funding grants today, as the Sports Commission turns its focus from results to corporate governance.

The Commission has demanded that the seven of the most generously funded sports reform their governance, or face funding cuts.

Swimming, athletics, cycling, hockey, rowing, sailing and basketball have been given a year to put the reforms into place.

But the administrators of some of these sports say they are being unfairly tarnished.

As Will Ockenden reports.

WILL OCKENDEN: It's usually athletes that are blamed when Australia fails to win gold, but now the focus has turned to sports administrators.

The Australian Sports Commission, responsible for funding certain programs at national sporting organisations, wants changes at the top.

Its chairman is John Wylie.

JOHN WYLIE: We think that in a number of situations in recent times in Australian sport, as shown by the Smith Review into swimming, the Wood Review into cycling, that there have been governance weaknesses that have been a common thread in those problems, therefore now is the right time to drive change.

WILL OCKENDEN: There's seven sports on the list - swimming, cycling, athletics, sailing, rowing, hockey and basketball. They all receive more than $5 million a year from the Australian Sports Commission.

More than $55 million a year is provided by the taxpayer to those sports, and the Sports Commission is demanding accountability through reform.

John Wylie says if the sports can't or don't comply, funding may be cut by as much as 20 per cent.

JOHN WYLIE: We want sports to work together as a single national organisation. We want boards to have better processes that are likely to lead to good skills mixes and to have better gender balance. We wants sports to be completely transparent in how their organisations are spending money, and we want sports to have sound practices in place for supervising sports science in their sport.

So it's more a longer term agenda we're driving.

WILL OCKENDEN: The reviews into swimming and cycling identified governance issues as one of the main reasons for competitive problems in those sports. But some of the other sports targeted by the Australian Sports Commission are wondering why they were included.

Andrew Dee is the chief executive of Rowing Australia.

ANDREW DEE: I don't like to read in the paper that we may by implication have governance issues, I don't think that we do, and certainly the Commission hasn't said or suggested in any discussion that we've head with them that we do have governance issues.

I think we've been lumped in with a group of sports because we are, you know, responsible for large amounts of money that we receive and I guess the way that that's picked up might be just a little bit unfortunate for us.

But look I'm not getting too precious about it, we will continue to do what we do, we will continue to do it well, and we're fully transparent already so I'm happy for anyone to come and look at what we do and perhaps even assist us to do it better.

But I don't have any issues.

WILL OCKENDEN: Basketball Australia says it's been working to improve governance for many years, and has already put most of what the Sports Commission wants into practice.

Andrew Gaze is on the organisation's board.

ANDREW GAZE: Yeah so strong evidence to say that Basketball Australia is in a very healthy position, and one that I think that the Australian Sports Commission would look upon very favourably.

WILL OCKENDEN: So if Basketball Australia is the epitome of good corporate governance, why would it therefore be on the list by the Australian Sports Commission to reform or to face funding cuts?

ANDREW GAZE: Well I think there's a number of variables that could come into play but that's probably a question more appropriate for the Australian Sports Commission. But I think that that would stem back to over an extended period of time, it's difficult when you look at the types of reforms that Basketball Australia has put in place, it has taken some time for those to be implemented and for the changes to occur.

But I think the feedback that we've been given from the Australian Sports Commission over the last six months has been nothing but glowing and I think they are very satisfied in what the direction of basketball is heading.

WILL OCKENDEN: The two sports identified by recent reviews to have governance issues, swimming and cycling, didn't provide anyone for an interview.